The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-03-16
QUEER DISHES.
ODD ARTICLES OF FOOD MORE
OR LESS PALATABLE.

Edible Ants and Beetles-Persian
Dinners-Bird'sN Nest soup-Polish
Dishes - -Macaroni-Makers
Eating Mice and Donkeys.
Larve of ants are considered by many
people a choice relish when spread upon
bread and butter, and are said to be ex-
cellent curried. In Siam they are highly
estee1ed, and are so valuable as to be
within the reach of only the rich. In
some parts of Africa, where ants swarm,
they are said to form at times consider
able portion of the food supply. The
eggs of insects belonging to group of
aquatic beetles are made in Mexico into
kind of bread OF cake called hautle, which
is eaten by the people, and may be found
in the markets. They are got by means
of bundles of reeds or rushes, which are
put in the water, on which they are de-
posted by the insects. When cooked in
cakes they are said to look and taste:
something like fsh-roe. The London
Standard once published this seductive
recipe for cooking black beetles: "Catch
your beetles in soup-plate filled with
vinegar, and keep them soaking for six
hours. Then turn the beetles out and
dry them in the sun for at least two
hours, when the outer shell can be easily
removed, the flesh then resembling that
of shrimp; to be put into agallipot and
mixed up with flour, butter; pepper and
salt, to thick paste; stew in the oven
for two hours, and when cold serve with
bread and butter.
In Persia every one from the King
down rises at six o'clock in the morning.
They then partake of cup of tea and
some bread. Tea is very important
article. of diet, and the tea-urn is nearly
always busy. No milk is used, but they
sweeten the tea almost to the consistency
of syrup. Persian dinners are always
preceded by pipes bubble bubbles, while
tea and sweets are handed around. Then
servants bring in a long leathern sheet
and place it on the ground; the guests
take their seats around it, squatting on
the ground. A flat loaf of bread is placed
before each man. Music plays. The din
ner is brought in on trays and placed on
the ground on the leathern sheet; the
covers are removed; the host says "Biss-
millah" (s'in the name of God'O, and in
silence all fall to with their fingers. In
the south of Persia dates are the staple
food; they are very cheap and satisfying.
During the summer lettuce, grapes, april
cots, onions and cucumbers form the dain-
ties of. the villager; and these, with bread,
cheese and curds, are their only food. In
every large town cook-shops abound. But
in Persia, as in the rest of the East, bread,
rice or dates are the real food-the meat
merely sauce or bonne bouche. Persians
of all ages are very fond of confectionery,
and are constantly devouring sweets.
The lower-class Persian will eat several
pounds of grapes, cucumbers or apricots
for meal. They eat onions as we eat
apples.
The famous bird's-nest soup, beloved
of the Chinese gourmet, is made of the
nest of bird that is native of Ceylon
and of the Malay region, and it builds in
caves and on cliffs where ordinary nest
material is scanty. Moreover it is O con-
frmed high-fyer, seeming always dis
posed to avoid the ground. The best and
cleanest nests which fetch the highest
price, are composed of pure mucus from
the salivary glands. The material in its
hardened state is brittle, fbrous, white
and transparent, Every like pure gum
arabic, or even glass;" aud the inner lin
ing consists of nothing but small soft
feathers. Inferior nests, which command
a smaller price in the Chinese market, are
composed in part of dry grasses, hair and
down, welded together by the fibrous
gummy secretion. In short, as Mr.. OAR
win b !untly puts it: "The Chinese make
soup of dried saliva" In shape the nests
are much like hanging pouches.
A traveller giving some account OF the
favorite dishes and the people of Poland
writes: " In the first place there is bigos,
kind of stew, prepared with pork sau,
sages, sauerkraut, ham and bacon, wrapped
tightly in a napkin and boiled for two
hours. Their favorite soup is called bas-
zoz, made out of beef bouilon, in which
slices of red beet root are boiled. Kapus-
MAX, another national soup, is made Of
sauerkraut and bacon boiled in beef soup.
Ucha is Russian soup, but, nevertheless,
much appreciated in the oppressed coun-
try. A fish soup it is, prepared from
sterlets. The sterlet is also much used,
in conjunction with the flesh of the stur-
geon, in the preparation of an excellent
pie call kulibiaga."
The 10th of August is the day in the
calendar dedicated to San Lorenzo, the
saint who figures in the pictures of "old
masters" holding fast to his gridiron,
and in death has become the patron saint
of the macaroni makers. 1t is said that
there is not a macaroni shop in Florence,
Italy, that is not on that day decorated
in the most marvellous of fashions. In
geniously- twisted columns of the raw ar
ticle support little pavilions of another
variety, from which hang deep fringes of
vermicelli, tied with scarlet ribbon or
mingled with dried grasses and wild
flowers, as suits the taste of the owner OF
the shop.
Frank Buckland, the English natural
ist, when at school was noted for catch
ing and eating field mice, which taste he
communicated to some comrades. The
boys went hunting the mice before break
fast, and were sometimes fearfully hum
ery. The mice were skinned, bit of
stick was run them, and they were roasted
oyor q fro of sticks collected from q |